Happiness is an inside job. It all depends upon your thoughts.
And here’s the good news!
Every day, no matter what’s happening, you always have the option to choose to think thoughts that create feelings of happiness.
How is that possible?
Because your thoughts create your feelings.
Because all your thoughts are optional.
Thoughts are merely sentences in your mind that you are thinking. It’s always your choice whether you keep, modify or discard any one of them.
Yes, it’s actually just as simple as that.
You get to decide. All day, every day. It’s all under your control.
Happiness is not a destination but a way of travel.
Happiness is not some hard-won achievement that you can finally claim after weeks, months or years of slogging your way through dissatisfaction, disappointment and discontent.
Of course challenges, issues and negative feelings are a reality.
But how we choose to process them makes all the difference.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes by the Greek Stoic Philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. It drives home this very point:
“When you are distressed by an external thing, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, but only your judgment of it. And you can wipe this out at a moment’s notice.”
Let’s unpack this centuries old observation and look at what it tells us about our potential to choose happy no matter what.
All your life circumstances are neutral.
Whatever ha happened or is happening in your life is neither absolutely good nor absolutely bad. It is just a neutral fact
Until you have a thought about it.
Until you tell a story about it, explaining it to yourself or others, making sense of it in light of your previous life experiences..
Now you’re adding shades of meaning which highlight your interpretation of the circumstance.
Your thoughts are nothing more than sentences in your mind.
Your interpretation and framing of any situation is 100% under your control.
You probably think your thoughts are hard-wired, a product of your values, beliefs, and judgments stemming from your up-bringing, education, religion or your past experiences.
But at any given moment, you can change the way you interpret or frame any circumstance. You can think new thoughts, that are just as valid and true as your old thoughts.
Negative self-talk diminishes happiness and your sense of well-being.
When you bombard yourself with negative, shaming self-talk, in the hopes that you will do better or be better next time, you are only inflicting unnecessary pain on yourself.
You are diminishing your ability to choose happiness.
You are creating an environment that breeds increasing negativity and blocks happiness.
Do not take this habit lightly. It’s holding you back from the happiness you deserve. It’s worth working on changing this damaging pattern.
It’s critical to understand how much power you have over your thinking because your thoughts create your emotions.
Everything you think you want or don’t want is because of how you think it will make you feel.
Everyone wants to feel a certain way in life, often some version of happy.
But what you’re often unaware of is how all those sentences in your mind are the fuel that drives your emotions.
They are deceptively powerful.
Each different thought/sentence you think has the power to generate a specific emotion.
Your emotions drive your actions, everything you do or don’t do.
And it’s what you do or don’t do that determines all your results in life.
Want better results in your life?
Managing your thinking is the first step to creating the results you want in life.
Your results are the mirror of your thinking.
Learn how to think intentional thoughts so you can fuel emotions which drive the actions that will achieve the results you really want.
Are you wrestling with negative self talk? Are negative emotions overshadowing your happiness?
Set yourself up for the results you want in your life.
You can learn self-coaching skills and tools to help you shift your self-talk from shaming to supportive.
You can learn how to feel your negative emotions all the way through so they don’t rule your life.
Then it will be so much easier for you to choose happiness, no matter what.
Let’s talk about it. Your FREE Strategy Call is waiting for you. Let me know you’re ready right here.
